Titanium
by Toss Me Away
Summary: Actually, I wouldn't mind staying within this metal armour, forever, if it meant I would be able to protect Ed. Angsty Al Alert. Bad End. not manga/anime compliant, just a character study. No pairings either.


Warning: Major Angsty Al

Titanium

Disclaimer: I do not own FMA or any of the mentioned characters.

Actually, I wouldn't mind staying within this metal armour. It would be easier for me to protect Ed when I'm not vulnerable to cold, pain or illnesses. I still remember that time when brother caught a fever, spending three days in bed was difficult for him. Not because he was too feverish, but due to the fact he wanted to be doing something for me and kept escaping his room to the library. In the end, a few librarians caught it too and they banned him from the library until he's better.

I didn't want to tell him that I'd given up on getting my body back when bro's working so hard for me...

Edward Elric is sleeping on an opened book- unaware of the concern I was showing. My armoured helmet wasn't good at expressing my feelings. If I couldn't manage to control my tone or pitch, older brother wouldn't have got the cues that I was feeling anything. It was a great thing I don't sound robotic. Brother would've been even more motivated to get his body back if he thought I wasn't able to express himself.

Every battle Ed had gotten involved in had given him scars, small tics and taking bits of hope that we could return to how we were. Sometimes, it's almost as if I was never a human. That was until my memories remind me that I used to feel warmth, that I had a brother, that I was named Alphonse Elric, and I was the son of Trisha Elric. Now, I can put my hands into the flames, see the rubber melt a little and feel nothing. That wasn't a great loss. I still had my brother- I'm still alive. If I wasn't alive, I wondered if brother would go insane from the loss of mom and me.

Maybe Winry would love him enough, and he would forget about us. That thought made me a little angry and sad.

Edward woke as his hand pushed the book away from the table and it dropped onto the floor. His face hit the table with a smack. He blinked blearily at me.

'Al? What are you doing here?'

'Waiting for you to wake.'

'Aha, sorry, this book had a discussion on the Transmogrification laws and I was-'

'I know, I've finished it, but practical application is impossible because the forgot to take in Frisch's Third law on physical transmutation. ' I picked up the book and put it back to the shelves. Brother had stood up and I followed him to the doorways.

'I knew something was odd! What a waste of time. You could've told me before I was into it.' he turned and went into the book section for chemistry. I'm probably going to carry all the books he'll check out, not that I'm complaining. I can carry trains if I tried very hard. We did an experiment once, to see how much I could carry. The limit is when the armour's material break. I wasn't involved in it as participant, but as a observer as brother went to the armoury to salvage similar materials. He's scared I'd be dented.

' If you didn't read till that part, you wouldn't understand why I said it didn't consider Frisch's Law.'

'Oh. But I trust you, so it's ok.'

He couldn't reach a book on the top shelves. The ladder's located at the end of the section. I sighed and helped him take it down.

'Not that one, the one with about organic materials.'

'What do you plan to do with that?'

'Trying out some tests to corrode homunculus with chemical. It makes sense that they have weaknesses like us.'

I shrugged, carrying the books.

Sciezka smiled when she saw us. 'Working hard today as well, ne, Edward, Al.'

'Not really.' he grumbled. Still sour about falling asleep at the table. Sciezka ruffled his hair, causing brother to glare at her and then grumble even more. I wish I was treated that way, a little. Nobody could see me as a kid anymore.

'Al's younger than me, go baby him.'

Sciezka turned to me and then to him, only to laugh.

'What's so funny?!'

'Al's more mature than you...I always forget that you're supposed to be the older one.'

'Are you saying I'm shorter than a bean-sprout that grew for a day?!'

'...she didn't, brother.' I sighed. When you get him started on his height, he take a long time to get off the topic. Best way is to stir him away from the other person so he'd have no more reason to argue. 'Let's go have dinner.'

'I'll be back after this!' He exclaimed, 'I'm not shorter than that the tallest table lamp in Colonel's room!'

I didn't even notice that Colonel Mustang's room had a table lamp. Colonel must've set him off then. He liked teasing brother too much. One day they might get sent to the hospital for starting a brawl.

I could see him stomping in front of me, his ponytail swaying slightly, but mostly the crown of his head. He should've drank more milk.

...

'Alphonse Elric, or can I say, a homunculus?' Envy twirled his hair.

I ignored his taunting.

'Edward never told you his greatest fear, did he? That he had nightmares that he pulled something out of the other side, and it wasn't Alphonse Elric's soul...but a monster's.'

I've never heard of such a preposterous string of lies in my life.

'And that in the first few weeks he had to shut himself up or he'd scream till he's hoarse, his own thinking tormenting him night and day.'

The first few weeks in the armour had been fuzzy, my consciousness slipping very often, all I could see was how concerned my brother had been. There wasn't a single time I saw fear in his face.

But the doubt had planted itself into my mind from that day onwards.

...

He had fallen into the rubble, I couldn't reach him in time.

What was the point of being tough if I couldn't help him when I needed to?

I threw the two homunculus into the wall, kicking them and hearing a loud squelch. I didn't look back at them. Brother's in danger. Brother's in that mess.

The ceiling had collapsed, the metal bits sticking out of the building.

'Bro!'

There was no reply. He was on the other side of the building. But there was no other entrance, no backdoor. How was I...

Alchemy! I forgot for a moment there, that I was an alchemist. I could remove the rubble by transmuting it into a different form.

I started my efforts to clear the mess, clapping to transmute when lifting them don't work. If I could cry, tears would be flowing down my face. All I could feel was my insides feeling more hollow than usual. And I am hollow.

How could one feel emptier than empty?

The rubble reduced to a smaller mess. A small hole was on the top. I clambered onto the top of the rocks and plaster, throwing the stray rocks away and trying to widen it for me to enter the building.

'Bro!'

I managed to twist myself into the building. Rocks collapsed behind me. The place was strangely silent.

'Where are you, bro!'

'Go away, it'll collapse soon!'

What was he saying? I'm not leaving without him.

'Al, leave! They're-'

I ignored his warnings, running towards the voice.

An acidic stench surrounded the area.

It's not the words said that matter, but the words that were left unsaid.

'Al, don't look...'

I didn't dare to touch him, his flesh slightly eaten by the chemicals. Reaching for the pails of water, I threw them at him, and for awhile it seemed as if it went away.

I was crying inside.

'It's ok, I won't die from this.'

Water diluted the deep crimson stains around him. If he was in that any longer, any longer and he might've...

...

I should've told him that I didn't care about getting back that body.

One Shot: inspired by the song Titanium- Pavane.

A/N: _The story is meant to be read as a visual novel._


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